The night passed without incident
and as the morning cme the two would have to once again face a powerful foe…
hangovers. Annice was he first to stir this time, and she groaned loudly as she
rolled off her sbed matt. The world spun as she tried to rouse herself, and her
throat felt as though she had spent he previous night drinking sand and glass.
She managed to swing herself up onto her knees, a feat she was assure dthe
bards would sing of for generations. She clasped her hands together and began
her morning prayers. She spoke softly under her breath as she communed with her
goddess, praising her and asking for her the days holy power and spells. When
she was finished, she pressed her palm against her forehead and holy light
flared. Annice’s posture visably relaxed, and she cralwed out of the tent.
The Cleric may have taken care of
some of the hangover, but overdrinking was a thing that even clerical magic was
incapable of dealing with fully. She shuffled towards the burn out fire pit and
fished out the wineskin, she held the bladder between her hands and spoke a
prayer, the wineskin suddenly started to swell and came to neat bursting before
stopping. Annice pulled from it, taking long slow gulps of the clean and cool
water she had just created. When her fill was taken she pulled the wineskin
away and gasped for air, turning and heading for Wilhelm’s tent. As she walked
she pulled tiny sips of the water every five steps or so.
“Wilhelm?” She called out softly as
she approched the man’s tent. There was no response. She cleared his throat and
spoke louder. “Wilhelm get up!”
“Mmmmrmrr!” A low growl emmerged
from Wilhelm’s tent. Annice heard shuffling and hen nothing.
“Come on Wilhelm.” She stated,
daring to slip her head into his tent. She quickl drew her eyes up to the
ceiling upon learning that WIlhem sleeps in the nude. She reached out and
slapped his though a few times. “Come on big man, we need to start the day.”
“Gods.” She heard him groan. “Oh
yeah.” His voice was coarse and groggy. “Mistakes were made last night.” He said,
finally managing a coherent sentence between his growling moans of pain. His
eyes fluttered open. “Wait why are you in my tent? We didn’t?!” He shot up and
noticed that Annice was in fact not ‘in’ his tend with him, but instead simply
leaning in through the entrance, doing her level best to keep her gaze above
his waist line, a job he was making harder than it needed to be by leaping up
like that.
“No.” She said flatly. Lips
pursing. She reached a hand out, pressing a palm against his forehead. He
sighed blissfully as her healing magic did it’s work.
“Thanks. I needed that.” He said,
Annice passed him the wineskin.
“You also need this.” She pulled
her head from the tent “Now put some pants on!” She added, a wry playfulness in
her voice.
The two readied themselves mostly
in silence, passing the wineskin of water between themselves as needed, Annice
even needing to refill the bladder before the two felt restored. Eventually
they were packed and ready to go, mounting up and returning to the road to
continue their journey. Their third day of travel was mostly uneventful, they
traveled at a quickened pace trying to make up for the lost time the bandit
attack and owlbear encountered incurred. Wilhelm kept a level eye out, and
started teaching Annice what to look out for herself, pointing out the signs of
best and men alike. She found the lessons fascinating and followed Wilhelm’s
eyeline each time he pointed to a particular bird or called attention to a
sound.
Eventually the two came upon a
river and decided to break to allow their horses a rest. The two beasts trotted
over to the water and began taking a drink, Wilhelm and Annice oved slightly
downstea from the horses with their own intent. Annice began to pull her silky
robe from her form.
“Syrene’s blessing I haven’t bathed
in three days!” She called out.
“Yeah it’ll be like that on the
road.” Wilhelm stated, pulling the lace of his breastplate to free himself of
the armor. “Uh, you sure you don’t want me to head up rivers a ways? I don’t
mind, honest.”
“You said we’d have to get comfortable
with out nudity eventually, right? Might as well get it out of the way.” She
grinned impishly and started to pull her underclothes free, reveaing herself to
him fully before striding into the water. She gasped and laughed out loud “Oh
Godess that’s cold!” She tip-toed and finally hurled her body into the stream,
letting out a joyful squeal. Wilhelm shuffled in place and mumbled to himself.
“What I said is you’d need to be
comfortable with my nudity. Din’t say nothin bout the other way round.” He
eventually shrugged and kicked off his boots, stripping himself of shirt, pants
and under clothes before barreling down the river bank and leaping into the
wer, pulling his nees into his chest to assure the biggest splash possible.
Annice let out a scream as she was doused with water, and laughingly splashed the
man as his head surfaced.
The two washed themselves, removing
dirt, blood, and the stink of two and a half days of hard travel. When they
were refreshed they came from the water and began to wash their clothes as
well, the bloodstains coming free of whitened silk of Annice and the darker
cotton and wool of Wilhelm. A small fire was made to dry clothes and skin, and
the two sat next to the flames, naked and comfortable.
“We’re not gonna make it on time
are we?” Annice asked as Wilhelm peered over a map, a scowl on his face.
“Naw. Mareen wanted four days to
complete a six day travel, it wasn’t exactly reasonable, but at the pace we’re
makin we won’t even arrive till day seven. That ain’t good as we need time to
find these Supremacy fuckers, get in on their good graces before their rally or
whatever it is.” He sighed. He looked like he had an idea, a bad idea.
“What is it?” Annice asked.
“We could cut two days off the
travel and arrive on day five, which would be great, but I ain’t happy about
it.” Wilhelm spread the map out and showed it to Annice and pointed out their
destination, Boughborn, and where they were on the path. “We’re here and we’re
taking this here road right?” He trailed his finger along the path, which took
a large diversion and swept west hard before traveling east again. Annice ilted
her hed and pointed at a clear fork oonf the road on the map before their path
diverted, the other path taking a much straighter route.
“Why don’t we just go that way?”
She asked, looking up to the man.
“That’s the thing, I’m pretty damn
sure that’s what Mareen wanted us to do originally and wat I personally had no
intent on attemptin. That’s Lost Road, the intended path here has to divert
around a valley path that people do. Not. Travel.” Wilhelm sounded grim.
“Why not?” ANnice’s brow knitted
into concern. She would have preferred to continue sunbathing, naked and
content, with the man to where this conversation was going. Moment ruined for
sure.
“Ogres. Three of em, took the
valley as theirs some three years back. So it was decided that the road should
diverge away from it.” Wilhelm stated, sighing in frustration.
“They’re dangerous enough that
people are willing to add two days to their travels just to avoid them?” Annice
asked, shocked.
“Yep.” Wilhelm stated, seeing where
Annice’s questioning was heading.
“And Mareen wanted us to take this
path to make her schedule.” It was less a question, just an airing of sudden
clarity.
“That’d be the case.” Wilhelm
looked to Annice. “S’why I call her half-angel, cause Mareen ain’t no angel.”
He shrugged.
“And you traveled with this woman?”
Annise raised a brow.
“Yeah, she didn’t use to be so…
callous. Be a time where shed at least have the gall to ask us, not just let it
hang in the air as unspoken implication.” He sighed. “Aasimar might be touched
by the celestial realm, but all it does is give them a twisted sense of right
and wrong. They’re right, you’re wrong” Wilhelm pursed his lips, holding back
his frustrations.
“Were you… with her?” Annice
felt wrong to ask, but she almost felt like Wilhelm wanted her to.
“For a while, yeah.” He nodded,
looking to the half-elf. “And it was shit like this that broke us up, both as
adventurers and as lovers.”
“What happened?” Annice probed
further.
“She got Gliff killed.” He stated
bluntly, drawing his gaze into the air, staring at nothing. “Least that’s the
way I see it. We was up against some cultists, small beans really they had no
influence, no real power, but she wanted to take them down.” Annice quieted as
Wilhelm told the story. “See her pa’ was a man, great hero and all that, who
had taken down some dangerous cult like forty years back or whatever and for
that was blessed by the gods. S’what made her an Aasimar. She said these
bastards were a revival of that cult and it was her duty to take them down. I
wanted to go in soft, she wanted to go in hard. Gliff…” Wilhelm sighed. “Gliff
was a bard, great man he was, was very taken by the Aasimar Warrior and her
Holy Quest, sided with her. He lost his life in the ensuing battle and… that
was it.” Wilhelm cleared his throat, and rubbed his face. “After it was all
done, we brought Gliff’s body back to his homeland, burried him, an I didn’t
speak to Mareen for near two years.”
“What changed that?” ANnice asked.
“Well, I had just finished a
tournament and there she was, lieutenant of the Vibrant Spear back then, and
askin me for a favor. Some governor in the town she was stationed at was
running a raw deal, lettin crime run rampant and taking back alley deals from
anyone who’d pay the slimy bastard enough coin. The people was sufferin, and
Mareen was powerless to stop him cause she had no proof, no one would talk. So
she asked me to come in and much up his system. Gotta admit I was gonna say no,
but she told me how scared the people were, how there were families that was
starvin… How could I refuse that?”
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